Toby Ibbotson - Mountwood School for Ghosts

‘I bet you, in five years they will be calling him a genius.’

‘Never, not in fifty years.’

The children walked past with Mrs Wilder. It seemed better not to disturb the argument.

‘Dear me,’ said Mrs Wilder. ‘I suppose it’s about that violinist who played at City Hall last night.’

‘No, it’s not,’ said Daniel, who had been round at Mr Jaros’s finishing off Charlotte’s box earlier that morning. ‘They’re arguing about the Argentinian midfielder that United has just bought. They’ve been at it for days. When they get tired of it they’ll start arguing about music again.’

Mrs Wilder sighed contentedly. It was as it should be. You can only have a furious fight about nothing at all if you know that your home will still be there tomorrow.

Toby Ibbotson is the eldest son of award-winning author Eva Ibbotson, whose novel The Abominables he edited with her first publisher, Marion Lloyd, following his mother’s death. Mountwood School for Ghosts is his debut novel, from an original idea by Eva and planned out in detail by the two of them before her death. Containing all the warmth, humour and spark of Eva’s novels for younger readers, which are being rereleased alongside this publication, Mountwood School for Ghosts marks Toby out as an exciting new storytelling talent in the children’s book world. He lives in Sweden with his family and writes whenever he can.

‘What joy to find the rare spirit of Eva Ibbotson lives on, perfectly rendered, through her son Toby. Mountwood School for Ghosts shimmers with the wit, style and special sense of fun of the very best kind of children’s book’

Eva Ibbotson was born in Vienna, but when the Nazis came to power her family fled to England and she was sent to boarding school. She became a writer while bringing up her four children, and her bestselling novels have been published around the world. Her books have also won and been shortlisted for many prizes. Journey to the River Sea won the Nestlé Gold Award and was runner-up for the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. The Star of Kazan won the Nestlé Silver Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. The Secret of Platform 13 was shortlisted for the Smarties Prize, and Which Witch? was runner-up for the Carnegie Medal. The Ogre of Oglefort was shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Eva Ibbotson died peacefully in October 2010 at the age of eighty-five.

‘They ought to be in the country,’ said Mrs Hamilton. ‘It’s where children ought to be.’

When Madlyn Hamilton and her younger brother Rollo are sent by their mother to stay with their Uncle George at crumbling Clawstone Castle, they can see that action is needed before the castle falls down completely! With the help of a team of scary ghosts — including Mr Smith, a one-eyed skeleton, and Brenda the Bloodstained Bride — they hatch a spooky plan to save their new home. But with a sinister scientist after the estate’s prize cattle, money might not be enough to save the mysterious white beasts of Clawstone Castle…

‘We must kidnap some children,’ announced Aunt Etta. ‘Young, strong ones. It will be dangerous, but it must be done.’

Three children — Minette, Fabio and Lambert — are stolen and taken away to a bizarre island, home to mermaids, the strange and enormous boobrie bird, selkies and the legendary kraken. But soon the children find themselves in great danger as the island is under siege from a wicked man with plans to use these extraordinary creatures to make money. Can the children save themselves and their new friends?

‘Well, this is it!’ said Ernie Hobbs, floating past the boarded-up Left Luggage Office and coming to rest on an old mailbag. ‘This is the day!’

Platform 13 at King’s Cross Station hides a remarkable secret. Every nine years a doorway opens to an amazing, fantastical island and its occupants come visiting. But the last time the doorway was open the island’s baby prince was stolen from the streets of London. Now, nine years later, a rescue party, led by a wizard and an ogre, is back to find him and bring him home. But the gentle prince seems to have become a spoilt rich boy, and he doesn’t believe in magic and doesn’t want to go home. Can they rescue him before the doorway disappears forever?

‘And remember,’ he said, throwing out his arms, ‘that what I am looking for is power, wickedness and evil. Darkness is All!’

Arriman the Awful, feared Wizard of the North, is searching for a monstrous witch with the darkest powers and is holding a sorcery competition to discover which witch is the most fiendish. Glamorous Madame Olympia conjures up a thousand plague-bearing rats, while Belladonna, the white witch, desperately wants to be a wicked enchantress, but only manages to produce flowers not snakes. Can she become more devilish than all the other witches?